Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

Visa Overstays and Catch‑22s

• Many describe a structural trap: green card processing for spouses can take 6–24+ months; leaving the US while an adjustment-of-status case is pending usually counts as abandoning it.
• People are often technically “out of status” but in a period of “authorized stay,” which confuses both laypeople and some officials and complicates things like driver’s licenses.
• For some categories (especially India, China, Mexico, Philippines, family preferences like siblings), waits can stretch to a decade or more due to quotas and country caps.

Legal Pathways and Complexity

• Detailed breakdown of spousal options: consular processing abroad; adjustment of status inside the US; and K‑1 fiancé visas. Each has its own long timelines, bars for overstays, and travel constraints.
• Nuanced discussion of student (F‑1), TN, and dual‑intent visas (H‑1B), and how prior “immigrant intent” can later be used against applicants.
• Interviews and outcomes are seen as highly subjective; small form errors or life circumstances (e.g., divorce history) can trigger long delays.

Fraud, Intent, and Enforcement

• One camp argues many couples in the article likely committed “immigration fraud” by entering on non‑immigrant visas already intending to stay and marry, instead of using K‑1 or spousal visas.
• Others counter that intent can legitimately change after entry, that proving original intent is difficult, and that the article may conflate overstay with fraud.
• Some note that earlier “lax enforcement” encouraged people (and lawyers) to rely on de facto practices that are now being punished.

Detention, Rights, and Morality

• Strong disagreement over whether visa overstays should result in detention at all, especially for spouses of citizens with infants and no criminal record.
• Critics call the system Kafkaesque and “cruelty-driven,” arguing there are civil alternatives (fines, supervised departure) and that detention is being used punitively.
• Defenders stress there is no inherent right to reside in another country and see detention as a practical prerequisite to removal.

Comparisons, Incentives, and Reform

• Multiple comparisons to Europe, Canada, Singapore, and Germany: many find US treatment uniquely harsh, though others note EU systems can be slow and restrictive too.
• Despite cruelty and risk, commenters say people still endure it because of perceived US economic opportunity, English language advantages, and “supply and demand.”
• Broad consensus that US immigration law is arbitrary and broken; disagreement centers on whether strict enforcement should come before or alongside legislative reform.